Starting system for automobiles.



F. CONRAD.

STARTING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLICATION FILED IUNE 5.1913.

1 ,246 ,7 1 7. S Patented Nov. 13, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

WITNESSES:

s k R INVENTOR w W BY adj/M7? F. CONRAD.

STARTING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5'l913.

Patented Nov. 13, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- I HI I] II II III! Illlllllllllllllllw Q 15 i w\ Ea? M3 WITNESSES:

INVENTOR fiLMfW ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK CONRAD, 0F SWISSVALE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO WESTINGHOUSE ELEC-TRIO AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

STARTING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMOBILES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 13, 191" To'all whom it may concern: e Be it' known thatI, FRANK CONRAD, a c1t1- zen of the United States, and a resident ofSwissvale, in the county of Allegheny and State of. Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Starting Systems forAutomobiles, of which the following is a specification.

y invention relates to starting systems for automobiles and it hasparticular reference to such systems as employ separate dynamo-electricmachines for starting gas engines of motor'vehicles and for furnish ingcurrent for lighting, ignition and chargin storage batteries.

y invention has for one of its objects to provide a system of thecharacterindicated above which is simple in its construction andautomatic in its operation to control the mechanical and electricalconnections of an electric motor and an electric generator.

A- further object of my invention is to provide a system which willeffectually prevent any damage to'the connecting gear mechanism becauseof an attempt to operatively connect the motor to the engine while thelatter is running at a high rate of speed.

In the systems in use in connection with motor vehicles, it is thepractice, to some extent, to effect the meshing of connecting gearwheels and to control the circuits of dynamoelectric machines bymanually operated devices.

The operator must determine the proper time to make the severalnecessary adjustments and any mistake in judgment or inadvertence on thepart of the operator may cause damage to the gear mechanism or to themotor by operating it at an excessive speed.

I propose to provide a system in which all necessity for the attentionof the operator to the details of the starting operation is avoided. Itis only necessar for the operator to press a conveniently p aced button,to cause the system to automatically and successively effect the meshingof' the gear wheels which connect the motor to the engine, the closingof the motor circuit, the opening of the motor circuit, and thedisengagement of the gear wheels.

The details of my invention w ll be described in connection with theaccompanying drawings in which Figurel is a side view, partially inelevation and partially in section, of a portion of an automobile withmy invention applied thereto, the electrical circuits and certain of theapparatus being lllustrated diagrammatically.

Fig. 2 is a view, similar to Fig. 1, of a modification of my invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, an automobile comprlses the usual engine 1' havinga fly wheel 2 that is provided with gear teeth 3. 1 Frame members of,the automobile chassis are indicated at 4;, and 5 and 6 designate adashboard and a foot board, respectively. An electric motor 7 isattached by any suitable means to the engine structure or to theautomobile chassis. The motor 7 is provided with an armature shaft 8upon which a pinion 9 is mounted to slide into and out of mesh with thegear teeth 3 on the fly wheel 2. The pinion 9 is provided with anintegral grooved collar 10 to be engaged by a yoke member 11 that isfixed to a slidable shift rod 12 at the forward end of the latter.

The rod 12 passes through a suitable opening in the dash board 5 and isprovided with an enlarged portion 13 which constitutes the movable coremember of an eleotro-magnet 14 that comprises coils 15 and 16. The rod12 is also provided with a reduced portion 17 upon which are mountedmovable. contact members 18 and 19 which coact, respectively, with fixedcontact members 20 and contact clips 21. A resistor 22 is connectedbetween one, contact clip 21 and one terminal of the magnet coil 15. Theseveral contact members 18, 19, 20 and 21 and the resistor 22 form thecontrolling switch for the motor 7. A spring 23 is interposed betweenthe rear end of the shift rod 12 and a suitable stationary part tonormally hold the rod 12 in its forward position.

An electromagnet 24., which is mounted on the dash board 5, comprises acoil 25 and a movablecore member 26 that. is normally restrained by aspring 27. -'-A. movable. con-[- tact member 28 is fixed to the coremember 26 to coact with fixed contact members 29, 30 and 31 to controlthe circuits of the coils 15 and 16. A push button switch 32 controlsthe circuit of the magnet coil 25 and, thereby, the position of themovable switch member 28. r

A generator,the armature of which is indicated at 33, isprovided with aseries fieldv winding 34 and a shunt field winding 35. The electricalconnections of the generator are controlled by an automatic cutout whichcomprises a core member 36, coils 37 and 38 and an armature 39 having apivotal support indicated at and normally held upward by a spring 11.are connected to a contact member 42 which coacts with a contact memberl3 mounted.

upon and electrically connected to the armature 39.

It may be assumed that the engine is stationary and that the variousparts are in their respective inoperative positions. l/Vhe-n it isdesired to start the engine, the operator presses a button 4% to close acircuit from the ungrounded terminal of a storage battery through theseries field winding 34, generator armature 33, coil 38, contact member42, winding 25 and switch 32 to ground and back to the battery. -Thewinding 25 is energized to draw the core member 26 forwardly and thusconnect the contact members .28, 29, 30 and 31. A circuit is thuscompleted from the ungrounded terminal of the battery 45, through thecontact members 29, 28 and 30 and the coil 16 to ground. A. secondcircuit is also closed which extends from the battery through thecontact members 29, 28 and 31, the coil 15 and the armature winding ofthe motor 7 to ground. The coils 15 and 16 are thus energized to shiftthe rod 12 backwardly to simultaneously shift the pinion 9 and themovable contact members 18 and 19. The contact member 19 first engagesthe contact members 21 to close temporarily a shunt circuit for the coil15 through the resistor 22, contact members 21 and 19 and the motorfield winding 45 back to the coil 15. The shunt circuit above tracedcompletes the motor circuit to cause the motor to rotate slowly becausethe resistor 22 is in circuit therewith. The circuit is almostimmediately broken but the motor continues to rotate slowly by reason ofits inertia as the pinion 9 is shifted into mesh with the gear teeth 3of the fly wheel 2. The further shifting of the rod 12 connects thecontact member 18 with the contact members 20 to complete the runningcircuit of the motor from the battery through contactmembers 20 and 18,motor field winding 46 and the motor armature to ground. The coil 15 isthen short circuited and the coil 16 acts as a retaining coil to holdthe rod 12 in its shifted position. The motor then operates at a highspeed to rotate the engine shaft (not shown). r

When the engine starts under its own power, the generator, which isconnected to the engine by any suitable means (not shown), is operatedat an increasing speed. The electromotive force of the generator opposesthat of the battery and thus decreases the electromotive force appliedto the magnet coil 25. When the efiective elec- The coils 37 and 38tromotive force reaches a minimum that is determined by the strength ofthe spring 27, the switch member 28 is withdrawn to break the circuit ofthe coil 16 and allow the spring 23 to return the shift rod 12 to itsnormal position. As a result, the motor circuit is broken and the pinion9 is disengaged from the gear teeth 3. The push button is thenineffective to operate the magnetic switch 24.

As the generator speed increases, the voltage reaches a value at whichthe coils 37 and 38 are sufliciently energized to draw the armature 39downwardly to connect the contact members 42 and 43. The chargingcircuit of the generator is thus completed from the positive terminal ofthe generator through the coil 38, contact members 42 and 43, armature39 to ground, the battery 45, and series field winding 34 to thenegative terminal of the generator. The charging circuit will remainclosed as long as the generator voltage exceeds that of the battery.

When the generator voltage is less than that of the battery, the latterwill tend to discharge back through the generator and,

consequently, current will flow in the reverse direction through theseries coil 38. The coils 37 and 38, which normally assist one another,are now opposed and, as a result, the armature 39 is released to breakthe charging circuit. The cut out 36 thus automatically controls thecharging circuit and prevents the battery from discharging back throughhe generator except during the closure of the push button switch 32 instarting.

A modification of the above described system is illustrated in Fig. 2,in which like numerals are used to designate corresponding parts. Sincethe two forms of my invention differ only slightly, the description ofthe system shown in Fig. 2 will be limited to those details ofconstruction and operation which difier insome particular from thesystem above described. The electro-magnets l4 and 24 are showndiagrammatically in the modification, but their arrangement andconstruction may be substantially similar to what is shown in Fig. 1.The shift rod 12 is actuated in directions opposite to those employed inthe first form of my invention to effect the meshing and disconnectionof the p1n1on 9 and gear teeth 3, respectively. The contact member 18,contact clips 21 and the resistor 22 are omitted, the coil 15 beingemployed as a resistor to start the motor slowly.

In operation, the button 44 is pressed to close the circuit of theelectromagnet 24 and the movable member 28 completes circuits from thebattery through the coils 15 and 16, respectively. The coil 15 is inseries 'with the motor armature and serves as a resistor to insure theslow rotation of the motor. The shift .rod 12 is actuated forwardly toslide the pinion 9 into mesh with the gear teeth 3 and to connect thecontact members 18 and 20. The coil 15 is now short circuited and thecoil 16 acts as a holding coil while the engine is being started. Thefurther operation of the variousparts is as above described inconnection with Fig. 1.

It will be readily understood from the foregoing description ofconstruction and operation that I have provided a system whichautomatically controls the starting mechanism during the entireoperation of starting the engine and which prevents the connection ofthe gear mechanism when the engine operates at a relatively high speed.The ease and convenience with which the gas engine may be started andthe battery recharged by my starting system and the safety with which itmay be operated, are advantages which will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art to which my invention appertains.

lVhile the generator, as employed in the system described, furnishescurrent for charging the battery only, it may, in addition, furnishcurrent for an ignition system and a lighting system (not shown) withoutmodifying, in any manner, the construction or the operation of thepresent system.

Such modifications. may be made without departing from the spirit of myinvention as fall within the limits of the appended claims. v

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination with two gear wheels, one of which'is shiftable intoand out of mesh with the other, of a member connected to said shiftablegear wheel, an-electromagnet for controlling said member and comprisingtwo coils, and means for controlling the connections of said coilscomprising means for shunting one of said coils.

2. The combination with a gear wheel, of a second gear wheel shiftableinto and out of mesh therewith, means for controlling said shiftablegear, said means comprising an electromagnet having two coils, a switchfor controllingthe connections of said coils, and a switch controlled bysaid electromagnet for shunting one of said coils.

. 3. The combination with two gear wheels, one of which is shiftableinto and out of mesh with the other, of a member connected to saidshiftable gear wheel, an electromagnet for controlling said member andcomprising two coils wound to assist each other,

and means for shunting one of said coils, said means comprlslng a switchmounted on said member.

. gagement'of said gear wheels, said means comprising a coil, means forconnecting said coil in series with said motor, and means for shuntingsaid coil.

5. The combination with an engine shaft, a motor and gear mechanism foroperatively connecting said vmotor to said shaft, of means forcontrolling said connecting means and comprising a magneticallycontrolled member, a plurality of coils surrounding said member, meansfor connecting one of said coils in circuit with said motor, and meansfor shunting said one coil.

6. The combination with an engine shaft, a motor and means foroperatively connecting said motor to said shaft,,of an electromagnet forcontrolling said operative connection and comprising a coil, means forconnecting said coil in circuit with said mo tor, and means for shuntingsaid coil when siilidf motor is operatively connected to said s a t.

7. The combination with a gas engine, a motor, means for operativelyconnecting said motor to said engine shaft, a storage battery, andelectrical connections for said several devices, of electro-responsivemeans operating to successively effect the engagement of said connectingmeans, connect said motor in circuit with said battery, break said motorcircuit and disengage said connecting means.

8. The combination with an engine shaft, a motor, a source ofelectromotive force and means for operatively connecting said motor tosaid shaft, of electro-responsive means for successively effecting theengagement of said connecting means, connecting said motor in circuitwith said source of electromotive force, breaking said circuit, anddisengaging said connecting means, and a manually operable member forcontrolling said electro-responsive means.

In testimony whereof, I .have hereunto subscribedmy name this 31st dayofMay,

FRANK CONRAD. Witnesses: B. B. Hmns,

C. E. WILSON.

